Togo

Dozens of Togolese journalists marched in the capital, Lomé, on
Saturday to call attention to reported allegations that government security
agents planned to retaliate against critical reporters. The allegations
themselves are in dispute--the government called them "fabricated"--but they are
set against a recent U.N. report expressing concern over the official use of
arbitrary detention and the alleged use of torture.

It has been a week since Togolese photojournalistKomiAgbedivlo, better known as "Didier Ledoux," was verbally abused by a military officer from France as he covered a political demonstration in the capital, Lome. The incident might have gone unnoticed, if not for social media and a year charged with historical symbolism for Togo, which is celebrating 50 years of independence from France. So the day, far from going unnoticed, has lived on through the Internet.

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In the year marking the 50th anniversary of
Togo’s
independence, the Togolese press is suffering from an obvious malaise—a
malaise perceived by the informed citizen and not by communications professionals
themselves. This malaise transpires in the daily practice of journalism through
the lack of professionalism. If elsewhere the media is stifled under the heel of
power, in Togo,
the state, in its “complicit neutrality,” watches the press drift below minimum
journalistic ethics where the crosschecking of information before its dissemination
is wanting.

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On January 8, while
Angola was hosting the African Cup of
Nations, the country made worldwide headlines after a deadly attack on the Togolese
national soccer team, which left a coach and a journalist dead. With
international attention turning to the story, a shroud of state censorship and
self-censorship by the Angolan media obscured the factual circumstances of the
attack and its aftermath.